For centuries, many cultures have considered the psycho-physical relaxation which accompanies meditative practices to be an important adjunct to human well being. However, it is only relatively recently that such relaxation has become the subject of serious study in western countries. As the result of such recent studies, western science has begun to confirm age-old beliefs regarding the value and importance of psycho-physical relaxation. Perhaps the most important of the recent scientific findings have been tests which substantiate that the apparent mental and physical relaxation that accompanies meditation is effective in reducing certain undesirable symptoms of emotional stress and physical hypertension.
However, even though meditation has long been understood to have such beneficial effects on human health, it is also well known that the relaxed states which accompany meditation are difficult to achieve. Long and arduous training programs under gurus, Zen masters, Transcendental Meditation leaders, etc., are commonly considered necessary, and even with such help many people are not successful.
The subject invention greatly facilitates attainment of psycho-physical relaxation, and although it achieves this important result in a remarkably simple manner, it can only be fully appreciated and understood in the context of the basic human psycho-physiology to which it intimately relates. Of course, no attempt will be made to provide a detailed description of the complex anatomical system involved. Instead, the following background will comprise a relatively short and somewhat over-simplified summary of a human behavioral model which the inventor has recently developed. This model is supported by his analysis of an extensive number of scientifically accepted human and animal studies conducted over the past century and, insofar as concerns prior art, the most pertinent of these studies were those of Trigant Burrow.
All animal life appears to be directed by a brain and nerve activity which the inventor prefers to identify by the term "central processor." The central processor is the source of instructions for the body's efferent neural activity which controls the muscle actions and other body cell responses that in turn determine the body's movements, heart beat, blood pressure, temperature, etc. Such efferent activity often is directed by the central processor in response to afferent neural activity, the latter being generated in response to outside stimuli sensed by the individual's eyes, ears, nose, skin, muscles, etc. Response to such external stimuli is essential to the survival of the individual.
However, an individual's response to outside stimuli is very selective, and it varies according to priorities programmed by the central processor. In most animals, highest priority appears to be given to stimuli representing immediate threats to survival, generally those activating the "fight-flight" response (except that, in the defenseless very young, the sounds or smells of a parent may dominate all other external stimuli, keeping the infant close to the parent and its protection). These higher priority responses take precedence over normal, body-regulating neural activities (those which operate to satisfy the body's needs for rest, nourishment, sex, etc.).
While this priority system seems to function adequately in lower animals, in humans it appears to have malfunctioned, resulting in the development of unconscious abberant behavior--a pandemic disease--of which we are unaware but which causes unnecessary neurosis, stress and hypertension. This malfunction of priorities has apparently arisen from the human use of symbols and language: Human infants are initially conditioned to give priority to efferent neural activity initiated by semiotic (verbal, language-oriented) inputs from their parents and, after infancy, such semiotically-induced efferent activity continues to dominate and take precedence over many basic efferent activities (heart beat, blood pressure, etc.) which, in the absence of such language-oriented stimuli, would instead be normally controlled in a more healthful manner by the central processor.
An example of the unhealthy effects of such improper prioritization can be seen in the changes which often occur in efferent neural activity in response to internal stimuli such as imagined or remembered "mental" images. For instance, a remembered insult can cause the individual's heart beat to increase, and blood pressure to rise. Further, the individual is often not consciously aware of such internal stimuli. For instance, certain external stimuli, such as the tone of another's voice or an expression on another's face which, while intended by that other person to be neutral or pleasant, may unconsciously remind an individual of a past insult from a third person, thereby triggering efferent neural activity in the individual which generates psycho-physical responses characteristic of hostility. Such an unconsciously hostile response to a neutral stimuli is merely one extremely simple example of a type of undesireable efferent activity which, if given proper priority by the central processor, could be eliminated to improve the individual's relations to others, as well as enhancing the well being of the individual by lowering blood pressure, reducing symptoms of stress, etc.
Of particular pertinence to the invention herein is that portion of the inventor's theory which incorporates eye movements into the human behavioral model roughly summarized above.
A great deal of research has been done in the past decade relating to the extremely fast movements of the human eye (saccadic movements) in well-defined patterns responding to brain signals of which the individual may or may not be aware. This research has been significantly enhanced by the development of sophisticated and complex electronic apparatus which can monitor and plot the exact patterns of eye movements, many of which are micro-saccadic (of milliseconds in duration over distances measured in microns). With the help of this complex apparatus, eye movement research has developed devices for exactly monitoring eye position for many different practical purposes, e.g., eye movements are now used for such remote control purposes as aiming the guns of fighter airplanes, and for permitting quadraplegics to activate electronic control switches (to turn on and off lights, TV sets, etc.), and even to operate electronic typewriters. Further, complex devices for monitoring eye position are used in bio-feedback arrangements to help re-train wayward eyes in persons suffering from amblyopia.
One interesting fact which continues to appear in recent eye motion research studies is the prevalence of saccadic eye movements of which the individual is not aware. The relation of such unconscious eye movement to other psycho-physical activities is not well understood, but, based upon the studies of Trigant Burrow (done more than fifty years ago) and based upon the inventor's own studies and his analysis of much recent research in this area, the inventor believes that such micro-saccadic movements are intimately related to the type of mixed-up priorities described above which initiate superfluous neural activities inimical to the individual's well being. Namely, the inventor believes that by learning to control such micro-saccadic eye movement, an individual can still the superfluous neural activity which interferes with the other psycho-physical responses necessary to the individual's well being. In this manner, the individual may be able to achieve clearer and more efficient physical and mental behavior.
The value of stilling superfluous neural activity has been long recognized in such well known practices as the arts of Zen swordsmanship, archery, calligraphy, etc., but, as noted above, such control is known to be difficult to achieve and only after long and arduous study under "masters."
In the course of his own studies relating to eye movement, the inventor has discovered that individuals can be trained to reduce their micro-saccadic eye movements and that such reduced eye movement is accompanied by indications of psycho-physical relaxation which are normally achieved only by persons trained in the art of meditation.
The invention herein is a simple method, carried out with relatively inexpensive apparatus, which can be used by individuals to train themselves to minimize the involuntary micro-saccadic movements of their eyes and, thereby, to readily achieve the kind of therapeutic psycho-physical relaxation that is normally associated with meditation.